Page 25 of Dirty Little Secrets
“Good.”
He catches the shift in my seat and grins. “That bad, huh?”
“Fuck off.”
He drops into the chair across from me and props his feet up. “Let me guess…she annoys you.”
“Not in the way you think.”
“Dude, she’s perfect. Not your type. No risk of you wanting to bang her, and it’s obvious she’s terrified of you firing her. You should’ve seen her when she came to get the McDavid file, looked like she was going to meet Satan at a sacrifice.” He jerks his thumb toward the hallway. “And… I’m still trying to figure out how that asshole Landon landed her. Not that it’s any of my business, but at least you won’t have to worry about him sniffing around, trying to kiss your ass through her. I also overheard they broke up.”
The thought of Landon with her doesn’t sit well but I push the thought away. I have to figure out how to get my shit together when it comes to that woman. But every time I try to bury myself in my work, thoughts of her pop back up. There is something about her that causes me to forget that she is my secretary.
“Any closer to finding out who’s fucking with the network?” I deflect.
Mike sobers. “No. There’s a leak, but they’re good. Every time we track it back it’s a dead-end. It’s like they’re learning the algorithm, collecting information and then—poof. Gone. No traces. No logs. Nothing. It has to be internal.”
I drag a hand over my face. “I know but I tried tracking every log in…”
“You designed it,” he finishes with a smirk and then it falls when he meets my hard stare. “Look, you’re brilliant, Xaiden. And rich as fuck. Why do you keep doing this?”
He means my underground work. The long hours. I don’t vacation. I’m hardly home. I own five houses besides my penthouse in New York and I hardly set foot in them.
I don’t share my personal life with anyone. I learned that hard way. Love is dangerous. It’s what got my mother killed. My father thought fucking my mother was an escape from his wife. And I was the bonus.
In his family’s eyes, there can only be one king in their world and since he didn’t have a son in his marriage, I was an asset. Even if I was illegitimate, but I wanted none of after my mother’s death. I also didn’t want to look into his wife’s scorned eyes every time I sat at the dinner table. He wanted me to continue what he started; I wanted to start something new. Besides, they could give Leo total control and I wouldn’t care. At the end of it all, they needed me and the technology I built or the government will dismantle their operation.
The men in my family were raised not to love. We were raised to make money and destroy whoever gets in our way.
Mike will never understand my past. Who my father is or what I’m part of. My life is centered on control and it’s what has kept me alive. Made me a rich man and kept me under the radar.I don’t have to look over my shoulder or worry they will someone I care about.
Information is power. And I like power without the mess of getting my hands dirty. I could hack into any system from a laptop and no one would know it was me.
But Mike, he could have a normal life with a wife and kid.
“Why do you?” I shoot back. “You’ve made enough to start a family.”
“I’d get bored. I can’t have kids with someone I don’t care about.”
I understand where he’s coming from but he could have a normal life. He could find someone.
“Kind of hard when you spend your life behind a screen.”
He shrugs. “Same as you. Why don’tyousettle down?”
I give him the same answer I give everyone that asks, the most logical one without opening a door that leads to more questions.
“Simple. I have specific tastes. Once they find out what they are, they’d run for the exit.”
He glances over his shoulder. “What about her?”
He means Nori Summers. “I don’t fuck my secretary.”
“Please. The way you eye-fuck her? It’s only a matter of time before your third eyes joins in.”
“I don’t eye-fuck her,” I scoff. “She’s not my type.”
“Keep telling yourself that. I’ve known you since college. We’ve fucked the same women. Some at the same time. I know what you like. And you like that she tries so hard to please you on her first day and… the innocence she wears on her sleeve.”
